Dunkirk: at the cinema with the kids

Today we watched Dunkirk on the big screen. I got to know about the movie after reading an article on it in Time magazine. It was portrayed as one of the best movies in 2017. When I got home and told my kids about it, they too have heard about the movie from internet reviews. This time I wanted to get it right, after all this is no ordinary family Marvel movie where you go, watch and have a good time. This was a historical movie and one that is probably quite close to their hearts.

So, in preparation, the kids read up on World War 2 event at Dunkirk and the Time magazine article. It was exciting though because this was the first time we were going to watch a sort of 'war movie' in the big screen. There wasn't much dialogue but you still get that feeling of suspense and anticipation of what was going to happen next.

It was really a different sort of experience for the kids. Perhaps for a generation that is used to seeing a lot of visual effects, short sharp witty dialogues, battle scenes with lots of shootings and big explosions, you probably think this movie deserves a rating of PG 13 because it didn't really have those kind of gory scenes with blood spurting everywhere yet, it was scary for the little ones. I think It was the scene at the beach as the soldiers were lining up and waiting...just waiting for the ship to come and rescue them; Then suddenly, you hear this faint roaring sound that gets louder and louder until finally you see the silhouette of enemy jets coming towards the beach; and the sound of that engine roaring and knowing that they were going to drop bombs at any second. I think the fear of the imagination is more horrifying than graphics. My two under 14 kids were gripped with fear and perhaps it unleashed their imaginations unlike before.

It is definitely a good movie to watch. The star of the movie was not Harry Stiles but it was definitely those spitfires. I would go back and watch the movie in the big screen just to see those spitfires on air. The idea of them using real vintage spitfires for some of those shots was just incredible. Me and my younger son love planes and spitfire is just one of our favorites. I would give the movie a 5 star just for those spitfire scenes although we were hoping to see Messerschmitt but they used Heinkel instead, I supposed the German planes weren't the center of attraction for the movie.

The center of attraction was of course those civilian boats that came to the rescue for the trapped British soldiers at Dunkirk and that too captured the imagination and emotion of the audience. My two older kids definitely recognized the significance of that. In one scene when a soldier asked "Are you from Deal" we smiled because that was where we used to visit Grandpa and Jenny, and played at the stony beach. I guess it must have brought some connection to them, knowing that this event happened right on the other side of the Channel from where they would run around and throw pebbles into the sea water.

I think the movie did give an impression to the kids that war is messy, gruesome, it is not like seeing it from a F22 or B2 point of view. The reality of war is suffering and the British soldiers (and the French including those not represented in the movie like the Algerians etc...) suffered; and they were scared, frustrated and desperate to cross that bloody channel to get home.

It is a great movie. It was simple with expressions and gestures to convey emotions, not much dialogue and yet, intense and gripping. A bit of history on world war 2 and appreciation of those spitfires would make this your favorite movie of the year.